Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)

User Rating:

5.1/10   

Director:

Mel Brooks

Writers (WGA):

Mel Brooks (screenplay) &
Rudy De Luca (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

22 December 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Horror

Plot:

Another spoof from the mind of Mel Brooks. This time he's out to poke fun at the Dracula myth. Basically...

Plot Keywords:

Spoof | Vampire Bite | Vampire Bat | Stabbed Through The Heart | Hammer

Cast

Leslie Nielsen	...	Count Dracula
Peter MacNicol	...	R.M. Renfield
Steven Weber	...	Jonathan Harker
Amy Yasbeck	...	Mina Murray
Lysette Anthony	...	Lucy Westenra
Mel Brooks	...	Dr. Abraham Van Helsing
Harvey Korman	...	Dr. Jack Seward
Mark Blankfield	...	Martin
Megan Cavanagh	...	Essie
Clive Revill	...	Sykes
Chuck McCann	...	Innkeeper
Avery Schreiber	...	Peasant on Coach
Cherie Franklin	...	Peasant on Coach
Ezio Greggio	...	Coach Driver
Leslie S. Sachs	...	Usherette (as Leslie Sachs)

Also Known As:

Dracula mort et heureux de l'être (France)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for comedic sensuality and gore.

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

USA | France

Language:

English | German

Colour:

Colour (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby | SDDS (8 channels)

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #33994) | Iceland:12 | Finland:K-3 (video rating) (1996) | South Korea:15 | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Chile:14 | Germany:12 | Norway:11 | Peru:14 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Culver City Studios - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company:

Castle Rock Entertainment

Trivia:

Renfield's laughter and crazed expression at the end of the "You are my slave" scene and at the end of the "Eating insects right off the ground" scene are tributes to the original Renfield, Dwight Frye, in Bela Lugosi's original Dracula.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Sykes hears Lucy's voice begging to be let out of her coffin, he accidentally moves the "stone" lid, showing it to have no weight.

Quotes:

Renfield: Are you saying that Count Dracula is our vampire?
Van Helsing: Yes!... and no...
Renfield: Then what are you saying?
Van Helsing: I'm saying no. But I'm leeeeaning towards yes.
Jonathan Harker: Then you're saying yes.
Van Helsing: No.
Jonathan Harker: Then you're saying no.
Van Helsing: Not necessarily.
Renfield: You sound dubious.
Van Helsing: No -I'm positive!
[...]

Movie Connections:

Spoofs Suspicion (1941)

Soundtrack:

Hungarian Dance No. 5

Brooks at his best

The one key element to UNDERSTAND and to enjoy a send-up like this is having the knowledge of its background. If you are not familiar with the original story of Dracula, as well as seeing both the Bela Lugosi and Gary Oldman movies, with others in between, then the gags will be lost on you.

People have rated that Brooks is losing his touch. Not so. His audience is losing touch with his level of intellect. A send-up's gags are only funny to those who recognize the source, and realize the play of the situation taking place. In Spaceballs, for instance, the final conflict between Helmet and Lonestarr, Helmet makes a play on the "Luke I am your Father" scene from Empire Strikes Back. But if you have never seen that film, you won't know that, and so the line "I am your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate" would be lost on you totally.

The acting is great in the movie. Those attacking the "bad" British accents should refer to other Dracula films to understand the joke. In oother Dracula films, accents come off as so fake, it's painful to watch, and that's the joke. The style of the film itself takes heavily from the Bela Lugosi version, in its design and arrangement of characters, though references to the Oldman film are used as well. Leslie Neilson did a great job in the role of Dracula, and his Renfield, Peter MacNichol, was a superb performance.

This movie deserves full credit for its level of parodistic comedy, even if it is lost on viewers. If you can't stand this movie, or find it unentertaining, then maybe you don't understand its roots well enough to appreciate it.